At first glance, it is almost impossible to notice
any major common points between the works of the artists Selman Trtovac and
Vladimir Frelih since the two use different artistic agendas and different artistic
languages. Through direct confrontation of their works in the Salon of the
Museum of Contemporary Art, they construct a space of dialogue, reflecting thus
a model of fluid understanding of “art strategies”. The exhibition is titled In
the Same Space, which is a name of their joint video work, made for the
purpose of this exhibition.

Except for the collaborative work, Selman Trtovac is
showing the drawings from the series Consequences and Spiritus movens,
the video work Consequences―Magnetic Stimulation of Brain, and
a series of photos; whereas, on this occasion, Vladimir Frelih showcases the
web work Area, a series of photos/photo installations entitled Kat.
No. 13 041 664.

First and foremost, Selman Trtovac expresses
himself in the medium of drawing, aspiring to define drawing as a primary
energy for all of his posterior artistic endeavours. Trtovac's statement about him being in a “search for the truth in
art” defines his practice as inclined to experiment, i.e. permanently inquiring
about where the idea about realisation comes from, and also whether it is
possible to perceive the content of a drawing as an autochthonous mechanism in
a non-explicit way. The series of drawings and photos called Consequences―Magnetic Stimulation of Brain (2016/2017) was made during a brain stimulation experiment at the
Military Medical Academy in Belgrade. At the neurological lab of the MMA, with
the great help from Prof. Dr. Tihomir Ilić and his team, Trtovac underwent a
non-invasive magnetic brain stimulation used in the treatment of dementia, but
also applied on the pilots of US Army as a part of the training aimed to improve
the speed of reflexes and reactions. With this procedure Trtovac wanted to
upgrade the mental process in terms of energised activity, and to reexamine the
consequence of drawing in relation to this intention.

The works by Vladimir Frelih include multimedia works
which blur boundaries between media; and as a consequence of his practice, the
products can be defined as installation-object-sculptures. Kat.No. 13 041
664 is the set of 183
photos where only red color is visible is an experiment within technological
process of photo development. The artist asked numerous photo studios to
develop certain code under the number Kat.No.
13 041 664. The result of the process is the interpretation of translating
digital into analogous data. Thus came about the photos which considerably
deviate from the pregiven code. Emphasising the incompatibility of the digital
and the analogous through the working of man, machine and chemistry, the artist
in a subtle way shows how thin is the line between understanding and state we
feel as “lost in translation”.

The collaborative video In the Same Space
is a narrative on the dialogue of ambiguous message showing a repetitive,
minimalist gesture of movement of the legs and feet on a white surface until
its whiteness goes black. The title itself conceptualises the form, the scope
of dialogue “in the same place” as another place that sees the exchange of
energy through the node of heterotopia. The exhibition In the Same Space
becomes a site of a specific ritual, meeting and realisation of a unique
rhythm, it becomes a space of event where specific differences, but also
similarities in the work of the two artists, converge and reach one another.

Both artists studied at the same time during the
1990s at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, Trtovac with Klaus Rinke, and Frelih
with Nam Jun Paik, and later on with Magdalena Jetelová.
During the studies they collaborated closely, not only in the field of art, but
they also worked together on exhausting manual labour so as to finance their stay
in Germany. They are united by several powerful bonds: years long
collaboration, accumulated shared thoughts and existential struggle. This
struggle took place primarily in the field of art. After studies their ways
parted, to meet again 15 years later, and at that point their dialogue
continued. Both artists are aware of the common cultural space in which they
operate and come from, the drama that peoples of former Yugoslavia had
experienced, and the necessity to confront many important issues in art, but in
and outside of art.

Selman
Trtovac was born in Zadar. From 1990 to 1993 he studied
painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. In March 1993, he moved to
the Art Academy in Düsseldorf (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf), to the class of Klaus
Rinke, where in 1997 he was promoted into a master, and in 2000 he completed
his studies. The same year he returned to Belgrade. Since 2003 he has been a
member of the International Art Gremium. He is an active participant in the art
scene. He is an initiator and a co-founder of the Free Art Cooperative “Third
Belgrade” and Perpetuum Mobile Heterotopia. He received his PhD from the Department
of sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. His works are part of private
and public collections and foundations of contemporary art (Stadt Düsseldorf,
MSUV Novi Sad, H2 Museum Augsburg, Contemporary Gallery in Zrenjanin, etc.). He
lives and works in Belgrade.

Vladimir
Frelih was born in Osijek. From 1994 to 2000 he studied
at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the classes of professors Nan Hoover, Nam
Jun Paik and Magdalena Jetelová. In 2002, he became
Meisterschüler and received MA in the class for expanded sculpture and
installation. During the last ten years, he has been active in contemporary
visual arts scene at home and abroad. He received several awards for his
artistic work. His work is held by several public and private collections and
foundations of contemporary art (Kunstmuseum Bonn, Stadt Düsseldorf, MSU Zagreb).
He is an associate professor at the Academy of Arts in Osijek, at the Multimedia
Department, and a visiting professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.